Category Archives: camera

Arnhem Land Revisited – medium format style

4X4, Arnhem Land, Australia, camera, Kakadu, Kakadu, landscape, Landscape, mountains, Northern Territory, NT, river/creeks, trees

The Doc took two cameras on the helicopter, including a Pentax 645Z Medium format camera. The Pentax gives massive files which The Doc can crop how he wishes. The files have eye watering details, not always appreciated when you can only post small images on a blog.

The Pentax renders very accurate colours, more so than the Canon 1DX which was the other camera used. These images are a very accurate representation on what you see from the helicopter.

To be precise, these images are from the West Arnhem Region.

Arnhem Land Revisited

Arnhem Land, Australia, camera, Kakadu, Kakadu, Landscape, landscape, mountains, Northern Territory, NT, river/creeks

Some images reprocessed from The Doc’s 4 day helicopter trip around Arnhem Land and Kakadu in 2017. It was a great trip. Click on an image to see the slideshow. Enjoy.

Bullo River Cruise

4X4, Australia, AWC, Bullo River Station, Bullo River Station, camera, clouds, Landscape, Northern Territory, Plant, river/creeks, trees

At the recent AWC Supporter Event at Bullo River Station we had small groups doing guided tours along the Bullo River, with a cold breakfast supplied (fresh fruit, quiche, yogurt, nuts, freshly squeezed OJ and muffins).

A few images are below. Click on an image to see a slideshow at full size. Enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.

The Doc is still writing the longer Bullo report.

Corroboree Billabong – the Sony A9III in the field

4X4, ampihians, Arnhem Land, Australia, birds, camera, Landscape, NT, reptiles, river/creeks, Uncategorised, Wildlife, ,

The Doc took the Sony A9III out into the field for its first use. A few test photos on the ground at Bullo River Station, but the first proper test was the helicopter trip around the property. Report coming, with images, in due course.

With any new camera there is learning curve concerning how to best set it up and use it. A few mistakes were made and a few images lost, but no disaster. The Doc was worried at setting the frames per second (fps) too low in the helicopter, but the culling of images showed that not to be the case.

The camera can go up to 120 fps in High Plus speed mode. 120 fps was not used on the helicopter, but it was on the Corroboree Billabong cruise, when The Doc had limited time to get images, including the old saltwater crocodile. The camera was amazing and this feature will come in useful for action shots. You must use it sparingly and cull images cull images, hard.

Having visited Corroboree Billabong before with Wetland Cruises, The Doc knew it would be a good day trip out of Darwin. Corroboree Billabong has the highest concentration of crocs in the world. It has both fresh water and salt water crocodiles. Corroboree Billabong is located on the Mary River floodplain.

The landscape images were being taken by the Sony P&S, not the A9III, as the A9III was fitted with a 135mm lens.

The harsh light in the middle of the day meant no brilliant images from the billabong.

The roadtrains and billabong images first, followed by the crocs close ups.

Now the croc images. The croc was getting close to 5 metres in length, so very dangerous to the stupid and unwary.

Bullo River Gorge – lots of bull

Australia, AWC, Bullo River Station, camera, Kimberley, lakes, landscape, Landscape, mountains, NT, plains, river/creeks, Uncategorised

The Doc is back in Darwin, sorting and culling images from the trip. He will spend a week here exploring, after a rest day.

If Bullo River Station sounds familiar it was made famous by Sarah Henderson’s book From Strength to Strength.

A superb all round experience. Amazing accommodation, great facilities, great food and support from both AWC Guides and Bullo River staff. The trip included bird watching, a morning river cruise, a guided helicopter trip, road trips around the Station and a last minute change in our arrival because of rain washing out the airstrip. We landed in Kununurra and were driven into Bullo River Station, down the Bullo River Access Road.

One place The Doc visited, on a helicopter trip around Bullo River Station, was Bullo River Gorge. More precisely, the part of the gorge known as Bull River Sands.

Earlier that morning, we had flown around the Bullo River and along the Victoria River to visit an AWC science team in the field, then we flew onto to Bullo River Gorge for breakfast.

The Bullo River starts and finishes on Bullo River Station, hence the Station’s name.

AWC runs the best supporter events, made even better when the Bull River Tourism team was involved.

A taste of what is coming. Enjoy.

Bullo River Sands, Bullo River Gorge, Bullo River Station

We were delivered in the bush taxi, a Robinson R44 helicopter landing in the gorge.

Derby mud flats

4X4, Artesian Range, Australia, AWC, camera, Charnley River, Charnley River - Artesian Range, coastal, Derby, Kimberley, Kimberley, landscape, Landscape, sand, Textures, Uncategorised, WA, WA, , , ,

The massive tidal changes in King Sound reveals extensive mud flats across the southern part of the Sound, around Derby.

Derby township itself is surrounded by mud flats which The Doc drove on several times (being careful not to break through the dried surface). These mud flats are not fully tidal every day, probably only on King tides. However, anytime The Doc felt the surface get soft he headed back to drier parts.

After taking off, in the helicopter, the first place we see is the big house, the Derby Prison. The Prison inmates look after the graves at the nearby Leper Colony, aka the old Bungarun Leprosarium, just north of Derby (Blog report here). The Doc drove up to Bungarun using the mud flats, not the road.

The mud flats reveal one of nature’s fractals, the repeating patterns you see when water is draining away on the mud flats (what The Doc calls the recurring tree pattern). To be precise “Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales.” If you look carefully, you will see the same pattern repeating itself. Admittedly it is more obvious in the helicopter where you better appreciate the scale of these fractals.

There is endless variety in the mud flats, including their shapes, colour and textures. While they are many images, the total was culled hard to give a good cross section.

The Doc finds the mud flats fascinating. Enjoy.

The Buccaneer Archipelago, with a little of Yampi Sound thrown in

4X4, Australia, Broome, camera, Kimberley, Landscape, Plant, rock, sand, seascape, Textures, trees, Uncategorised, WA, WA, , , ,

Below is a satellite image of Derby, King Sound (that great big “harbour”) and on its northern edge a group of Islands known as the Buccaneer Archipelago. The Derby mud flats are obvious on the southern edge of King Sound, near the Derby township. Towards the top right is the Walcott Inlet, which leads into Charnley River and its gorge, yesterdays spectacular post.

The helicopter trip continues. Here is small selection of images from the Buccaneer Archipelago. Wikipedia states “The archipelago, covering over 50 square kilometres (19 sq mi) is located at the head of King Sound and is composed of about 800 islands found between King Sound and Collier Bay near Yampi Sound.”

Yampi Sound also has a major Army training base inland from the Sound itself. The images towards the middle with a burn off taking place, from memory, is part of Yampi training grounds. Often Yampi is boring open grasslands. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy helps the Army conserve part of the training grounds set aside for conservation along the coast.

The massive tidal flows are obvious in several images, with the disturbed water during a tidal change.

To see a larger image click on a thumbnail.

Charnley River Gorge, Artesian Range, The Kimberley

4X4, Artesian Range, Australia, AWC, camera, Charnley River, Charnley River - Artesian Range, Derby, Derby, Kimberley, Kimberley, Landscape, landscape, mountains, Plant, river/creeks, rock, Textures, trees, Uncategorised, WA, , ,

When posting some Kimberley images recently The Doc realised he has not posted images from his 2-day helicopter trip out of Derby in 2015 (better late than never!) – except 2 or 3 images.

Starting with Day 2, here are images from flying along the Charnley River Gorge, Artesian Range, The Kimberley, Western Australia. It was a thrill of a lifetime, breathtakingly beautiful place. We had permission from Australian Wildlife Conservancy to do the trip over their property and land. With both the pilot and the passenger being AWC supporters helps!

The Artesian Range is the only part of Australia that has not suffered any mammal extinctions since European settlement, but the cane toads got into the area in the last few years. So that may change.

Where the river bed is a muddy light grey, the river is tidal. The clearer water is beyond the tidal zone and is fresh water coming down the river.

We landed and took pictures of Aboriginal art, which had some very rare figures. The Doc may post one or two later.

Make sure you click on the image to see the full size slide show.

How to register IPTC Information into the Sony A1, A11, A9, A9II, A9III, A7RIV and A7RV

Australia, camera, IPTC, IPTC information

This is one of the least known features of the A9, A9II, A9III, A7RIV, A7RV and A1. The feature allows you to put customised IPTC information into your camera, which in turn adds it to your images. But the IPTC feature and how put the information into the camera is vague. No more.

The Sony software and instructions are here.

The Doc had to do a survey before he could download the software.

Get an old SD card, it does not need to be fast, as the IPTC information will be stored on the card and then loaded into the camera. Warning: any SD card which is subsequently formatted will lose its customised IPTC Information and you will need to reload the IPTC data back onto the SD card.

The Sony instructions linked above are not complete. The Doc’s suggestion:

  1. Install the Sony IPTC software on your PC/Mac. It is called the Sony IPTC Metadata Preset.
  2. Type in the IPTC information you want stored in the camera. You can import this information into the Sony IPTC Metadata Preset software if you already have it in an XML file.
  3. Format a SD card in your Sony A1, A9, A9II, A9III or A7RIV (it MUST be formatted in the camera).
  4. Put the camera formatted SD card into a card reader attached to your PC/Mac.
  5. Go to Sony IPTC Metadata Preset software and EXPORT the file to the formatted SD card. You can save the info on your PC/Mac but it must be EXPORTED onto the SD card.
  6. Put the SD card into Slot 1 of your Sony A1, A9, A9II, A9III or A7RIV. Do not have two cards in the camera.
  7. Open the Shooting Menu on the Sony A1 (or your model): Shooting>3File>IPTC Information>Register IPTC Info>Select Slot 1
  8. If successful you get the message “Registered IPTC Information”. Select OK.
  9. Now select Write IPTC Info in your camera menu and turn it on/off as you desire. When turned on, the customised IPTC Information will be written by the camera to the images.

Procedures listed in Point 7 will vary between the various Sony camera models. Warning: you must use the Sony supplied software as the camera will only upload the IPTC information exported from the Sony app.